In my first blog on the State of the Church: A personal Reflection, I talked about the crisis in preparing ordained leaders for the challenge of revitalizing congregations. In this one, I want to write about the crisis in evangelism and leading other to faith in Christ what we might call the front door of our community. Let me begin by commending the ongoing and great work of the Invite, Welcome, Connect Ministry in equipping congregations in building up our congregations. This is great hands-on information for leaders who care about reaching and greeting those outside the Church.
Now let’s face the challenge and the problem. Officially according to the Church, evangelism is to present Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit so that others are led to believe in him as savior and follow him as Lord within the fellowship of his Church. We should be honest that today this definition is largely ignored. As progressives have taken more control over our community, the definition of evangelism is now rooted in this. We are out to make the world a more just and inclusive society, the reign of God, and we invite anyone who would like to help us in this task to join us. We also, according to the evangelism network’s publications, are committed to saving the environment and planting gardens to assist in providing food to those in need. This too falls within the category of making the world a better place. After all, what better news can we share than God cares for those in need?
Before you think that this is a negative set of statements on my part, let me clarify that I identify with a great deal of the Church’s efforts to be inclusive of all people and to be advocates of justice and protectors of the environment. These are all worthy activities and works of the Church. However, in our attitude toward these works rests the problem we now have with evangelism.
First, we are not doing evangelism, we are doing recruitment of like-minded people. As one priest said publicly, “we will not accept anyone in our church who does not accept all our LGBTQ… people.” I was not surprised to hear this said in a large public forum, but I was troubled that not one of those who heard this objected. It would do me no good in Episcopal Circles to warn of the attitude of recruiting likeminded people because this has become so much the norm that no Episcopalian would see anything wrong with this. Let me point out that a community made up of like-minded people that will not let in anyone who does not agree with them is a better definition of a cult than a church.
Second, the progressive side of our community has made Christianity principally about what is classically called “works.” Our Episcopalian leaders still remember that salvation, if you care about it, is a grace and gift of God, by now they often say, “modeled for us by Jesus.” As one recent progressive leader wrote, "It is not necessary for people to believe in Jesus as God or the son of God or worship him. We just need to follow his example. To an untrained theological mind, this sounds good but it is not good.
Episcopalians are mindful of the classical formula that we are saved by Grace and not by our works. But now we have a revisionist view of what salvation means. It is that God accepts us just the way we are because like most college educated Christians, we have come to believe therapeutic self-acceptance and salvation by grace are the same thing. Perhaps we should add the song “Learning to Love yourself is the greatest love of all” to a new hymnal. Yes, there is a therapeutic truth that lies in self-acceptance. In classical theology we learn to hate sin and not the sinner even if the sinner is us. And we are taught that the sinful must stand before judgement because we are not who God created us to be or intends for us to be in Christ. Toxic self-hatred is not repentance, it is an illness and a debilitating dysfunction in need of healing, but that is not salvation.
What I am highlighting is the abysmal state of theological understanding that deconstructionism and revisionist progressive theology have brought about in a community where having correct intentions is the dominant theme. Fortunately, this isn’t the only story of the Church. There are many especially younger clergy who understand where all this leads us. But for now, most progressives keep repeating these themes.
As most of my readers know, I have been and continue to be a strong advocate for evangelism. This largely falls on deaf ears among my fellow Episcopal clergy at this time, but I can assure you not the laity. I continue to declare that evangelism “proclaiming the God News of Salvation in Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of sin, the reconciliation with God and others, and the new life lived in the power of the Holy Spirit” is at the heart of our calling, just that it is out of step with the times. Out of step at least with the Spirit of the times.
If I could best provide a jolt to this mindset, what could I say? Why is it, I ask, that at almost every public event of loss or tragedy voices are raised to sing “amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me? I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see” I would contend that beyond the meeting rooms of seminary professors and the gathering together of well-meaning church leaders lies the dominant DNA of American faith that knows the desperate need people and our society have for redemption and transformation. And if you do not know this need, I would suggest the evening news as the best jolt to question these false assumptions with the grim reminder of the human condition. For example, is the message that we just need to learn to love other people going to stop the rumbling of those Russian tanks? No, our dilemma is that we know what is right, but we are unable of ourselves to do it as Paul so powerfully preached! And he asks, “who can free us from this bondage to sin and death? “Jesus” is the resounding response the Christian community from the Resurrection until this day.
The State of the Church is that today we have lost the message of the life giving, liberating, and loving Christ and we have sold our heritage of transformation in the power of his resurrection for a bowl of good intentions and therapeutic self-love.
Amen!
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